NEWBURGH – State Supreme Court Justice Timothy McElduff has declared the City of Newburgh’s emergency tenant protection act declaration null and void.
The Hudson Valley Property Owners Association challenged the city’s declaration.
The ruling is “a victory for property owners as they are freed from the egregious governmental overreach of having their properties taken for the public’s benefit and the vortex of an impenetrable state DHCR bureaucracy,” said Richard Lanzarone, executive director of the landlords’ group.
He said it is also “a victory for tenants since they will not have to live through the certain degradation of their living quarters forced on them by the dis-investment consequences of EPTA.”
Lanzarone also said it is a victory “for the rule of law since the legislation does not say, good effort, close enough, it says five percent. The decision restores the plain language of the law as opposed to recent decisions, which had in effect nullified the clear statutory intent of the state legislation.”
In order for a municipality to qualify for the tenant protection act, they must prove they have a rental vacancy rate of at least five percent and the property owners’ organization challenged Newburgh’s figures.
